The Ultimate Wilds of Eldraine Limited Set Review

Last updated on March 22, 2024

Eriette of the Charmed Apple | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

Throne of Eldraine is widely remembered as one of the most broken sets of all time. Not since the likes of Urza’s Saga and Mirrodin block have we seen a set responsible for more bans in the Standard format. However, it’s easy to have broken cards overshadow the set’s amazing Limited. I loved drafting Throne of Eldraine, so I have very high hopes for our return to this awesome plane of fairy tales brought to life.

As always, I want to remind you that this review is based on initial impressions of the cards. It’s hard to figure out how these cards will play out without knowing things like the speed of the format or the relative power levels of the colors and archetypes. Hence, my reviews will largely be based on the card’s quality in a vacuum or assuming that their specific archetype is playable. I will use a comparative rating system on a scale of 0-10, with each rating meaning the following:

Rating Breakdown

Blossoming Tortoise | Illustration by Simon Dominic

10: The absolute best of the best. 10s will make a meaningful impact on any game regardless of when you play them and will be extremely tough to beat. Cards like Sunfall or Zephyr Singer.

8-9: Extremely good cards, usually game-winning bombs and the most efficient removal spells, though not quite good enough to be a 10/10. Cards like Hoarding Broodlord or Invasion of Fiora

6-7: Important role-players. These are typically going to be the best uncommons that really drive you towards playing a particular color, such as build-arounds and good removal. Cards like Preening Champion or Volcanic Spite

3-5: The average Limited card. Most commons and uncommons will end up in this range and most of your Limited decks will be made up mostly of these. Cards like Swordsworn Cavalier or Meeting of Minds

1-2: These cards are generally pretty bad and ideally you won’t play any of them. They should be kept in the sideboard and might be useful in specific situations. Cards like Crystal Carapace or Burning Sun's Fury

0: Absolutely awful cards. Virtually unplayable in every scenario and you should never put these cards in your main deck. Cards like Invasion of Arcavios or Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur.

First, this set has a number of mechanics and I’d like to go over before talking about individual cards.

Set Mechanics

Adventure

Adventures are back and they were one of the most powerful mechanics from the original Throne of Eldraine. Any mechanic that gives you extra options for casting your spells is excellent, and I don’t expect this to be any worse this time around.

Bargain

If you’re familiar with the “everything is just kicker,” meme, then this might look a bit familiar. Bargain is essentially just a kicker cost that asks you if you'd like to sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token in exchange for bonus effects. I expect many of these cards to be decent even when you don’t pay the bargain cost but even better when you’re able to. Above all else, the flexibility of being able to cast the card for either cost should make for a very strong mechanic.

Celebration

Celebration is an ability word that simply rewards you for having two or more nonland permanents enter the battlefield in the same turn. That might not be so trivial if you’re stuck playing one card each turn, so it offers a decent payoff for being able to play two spells in a turn. However, there’s another way to satisfy this requirement and that’s to focus on creatures that create a token when they enter the battlefield. There are a lot of those about, thanks to the new role mechanic and the plethora of food tokens, so pay attention to those if you have a lot of reasons to celebrate in your deck.

Food Tokens

Food is back and will be very prominent in the set. Put simply, food tokens are artifacts that you can sacrifice for 2 mana in exchange for three life. There are plenty of other uses for them in the set, such as triggering celebration or being sacrificed to bargain costs, so I’m sure you’ll find many different uses for your food.

Roles

Roles are a new (and unique!) mechanic. There are six roles: Monster, Sorcerer, Young Hero, Royal, Wicked and Cursed. Each role is an aura token that each has different abilities. Many cards will create role tokens and attach them to creatures or even to themselves. Hence, for the most part, we can look at creatures as if they always have their roles. But remember, we can use those role tokens for other purposes like sacrificing them to pay bargain costs. Each of your creatures can only have one role (per player) attached at a time, which encourages you to sacrifice the one they have if you want to attach a different one.

Draft Archetypes

In modern Limited sets, each two-color pair has a dedicated archetype for you to draft. To provide a little context to our reviews, here are the intended archetypes for the set:

• Azorius () – Tapping opposing creatures matters
• Dimir () – Faerie typal
• Rakdos () – Rat token aggro
• Gruul () – Creatures with power 4 or greater matter
• Selesnya () – Auras/roles matter
• Orzhov () – Enchantments going to the graveyard matter
• Golgari () – Food matters
• Simic () – Ramp + Mana value 5 or greater matters
• Izzet () – Instants and sorceries matter
• Boros () – Celebration aggro

Each of these archetypes is inspired, at least in part, by a classic fairy tale. The Golgari food theme for example is inspired by Hansel and Gretel. Try and see which other fairy tales you can spot! Now, without any further ado, let’s jump right into the cards themselves.

White

A Tale for the Ages

Rating: 7/10

This is a very powerful effect to have access to, but it isn’t something you can just play in any white deck. Given that the green/white deck wants to be focused on going wide with creatures and assigning them roles, I would imagine this card is great in that deck but bad elsewhere.

Archon of the Wild Rose

Rating: 10/10

My first impression of this card is that it’s just plain broken. We’ll get to the white Craterhoof Behemoth a bit later, but this is practically the same card for just 4 mana. Archon will come down and give a lot of your team flying as well as a likely power/toughness boost assuming you’ve got multiple roles. Even if you don’t have any roles, it’s still a 4/4 flier for only 4 mana which is an absurd rate by itself. The least it will do is be one of the strongest cards on the board and the best it can do is win you the game on the turn you play it, and that sounds like one of the best cards in the set to me.

Archon's Glory

Rating: 3/10

This is nice and cheap, but bargain seems like a pretty steep cost just to gain some keywords. It’s going to be worth it to gain a bunch of life sometimes, so it’s a great option to have access to.

Armory Mice

Rating: 4/10

3/1 creatures for 2 mana are usually a little weak, so they need a little upgrade in order to be good enough. Being a 3/3 fairly often is definitely a worthwhile upgrade which I think turns this into a highly desirable 2-drop.

Besotted Knight

Rating: 2/10

Who doesn’t love a Hill Giant? Well, I don’t. The adventure side isn’t that strong and I don’t think it makes up for a lackluster creature.

Break the Spell

Rating: 5/10

In a set focusing on enchantments, getting to destroy an enchantment for 1 mana is bound to be something we’re interested in. Better yet, destroying a role lets us draw a card, which can free up our creature from a cursed role or destroy an opponent’s role as a combat trick for a big swing in card advantage.

Charmed Clothier

Rating: 4/10

Five drops are at a premium in modern draft sets, but this one represents a 4/4’s worth of stats and 3/3 of it is flying. It’s quite bad on an empty board, which holds it back a little bit, but it should be good the rest of the time.

Cheeky House-Mouse

Rating: 5/10

Yes. That’s all I need to say. A 2/1 is a good deal for 1 mana and the adventure mode is very relevant when you draw this late. Much like Faerie Guidemother, you should just run this out as a creature on turn one, but then look at the adventure when you draw it after turn 5 or so.

Cooped Up

Rating: 6/10

This is a great Pacifism variant for the set. Just like Dreadful Apathy in Theros Beyond Death, the fact that we can put it into the graveyard and exile the creature helps deal with the other themes in the set. The black/white deck in particular will appreciate this, but any white deck is happy with it.

Cursed Courtier

Rating: 4/10

This is an interesting design, but it might fall flat. It feels most at home in white/black where you can sacrifice the cursed role and be left with a good creature. A 3/3 lifelinker is definitely desirable, but it requires a little too much work for most decks to be interested in it.

Discerning Financier

Rating: 4/10

This definitely reads like a card that was designed for a certain multiplayer format. However, it does look quite strong in Limited. It’s not a bad size, and, if you’re on the draw, it ramps you to a 5-drop on turn 4. I would quickly side it out if I was on the play and back in when on the draw, so bear that in mind if you choose to play it.

Dutiful Griffin

Rating: 7/10

I love everything about this. A pure Air Elemental is a great card in Limited already, but add on an ability to bring it back from the graveyard and we’re into potential “mythic uncommon” territory. The only thing stopping it from being worthy of a higher grade is how costly the ability is, but that doesn’t stop it from being an excellent card that I would happily start my draft with.

Eerie Interference

Rating: 1/10

A Fog is a Fog at the end of the day. This isn’t a good Limited card, but it isn’t completely useless. You can set up some situations where it lets you eat attacking creatures in combat, but that’s too niche to be a main-deckable card.

Expel the Interlopers

Rating: 7/10

There’s a recent trend with board sweepers to give them the potential to be one-sided. This one is pretty flexible, giving you the option of destroying all creatures or leaving some alive, particularly if you have the smallest creatures on the board. I like the options here and I expect this to be a nice bomb rare.

Frostbridge Guard

Rating: 4/10

This is expensive for a tapper, but it’s a 2-mana 2/2, so it brawls pretty nicely in the early game. The white/blue deck is happy with this, but you can probably find better 2-drops for other white decks.

Gallant Pie-Wielder

Rating: 5/10

Celebration shouldn’t be too hard to enable if you build around it, and this is a nice payoff for that. It’s also great at being given a role or other auras, so I’m sure this is fine on most mana curves.

Glass Casket

Rating: 7/10

Glass Casket was a great removal spell last time and I doubt anything has changed now. This is just a good, cheap removal spell that should be relevant for most of the game.

Hopeful Vigil

Rating: 5/10

Both white and black have versions of this card with great enter-the-battlefield triggers, so you can sacrifice it for value later. The white/black deck will want this the most, but it’s more than good enough for any white deck to run it.

Kellan’s Lightblades

Rating: 4/10

Three damage to an attacking or blocking creature is pretty weak, but has its uses. If you can bargain it easily then it definitely goes up in value.

Knight of Doves

Rating: 6/10

Creating a good creature token for doing the thing that a draft archetype wants to do is usually one of the best payoffs we can hope for. The creature is a bit small, and I’m not sure how often you’ll be able to trigger this, but it’s cheap enough that I will try it out before being proved wrong.

Moment of Valor

Rating: 5/10

The typical Smite the Monstrous card typically runs into trouble when it can’t find targets to be used on. This variation is pretty good and shouldn’t run into that difficulty. Not only is it cheaper to cast, but the alternate mode is a strong failsafe to let you trade for other creatures.

Moonshaker Cavalry

Rating: 3/10

I’m sure plenty of Commander players are excited about this, but 8 mana makes this wildly uncastable. The ability is extremely powerful, so I’m not completely off it, but it requires so much work that I don’t think you generally want it.

Plunge into Winter

Rating: 4/10

We’ve seen Pressure Point in the past, and it was never good. I’m holding out hope that the white/blue deck is good enough so this has some value, but it’s possible it’s not good enough.

Protective Parents

Rating: 4/10

It’s Batman’s origin story personified. This card is pretty good for filling your curve, especially when you don’t trade off your 2-drop so you have something to enchant with the young hero role.

Regal Bunnicorn

Rating: 6/10

It’s a BUNNICORN! I’m in love. Yeah, the card’s also great. It’s always a minimum 1/1, which is not exciting, but playing any creature, token, enchantment, or whatever else grows it. It’s not unrealistic to imagine this being a 5/5 or a 6/6 with relative ease in the midgame.

Return Triumphant

Rating: 4/10

This looks like the triumphant return of Recommission from The Brothers’ War. I remember that card being fine, but this looks a lot better. It triggers celebration with just one card and gives you an enchanted creature if that matters. It needs some setup to work, but it looks solid in the context of the set.

Rimefur Reindeer

Rating: 4/10

Repeatable creature-tapping is really useful, but you need to keep up with playing enchantments to trigger it. If you get one or two free taps out of it then it’s not a bad card, and the size is pretty solid for a 4-drop.

Savior of the Sleeping

Rating: 3/10

This is a fairly weak payoff for the white/black deck, but it’s still a fine curve-filler if you need it.

Slumbering Keepguard

Rating: 5/10

This 1-drop is one of the best I’ve seen that scales into the late game. With a bunch of enchantments in play, it’s not unreasonable to assume this could be a 5/5 or a 6/6. If you have plenty of enchantments in your deck, this is one of the best cheap creatures you can pick up.

Solitary Sanctuary

Rating: 6/10

I like these archetypal build-around cards that function as both an enabler and a payoff card. It’s relatively weak at doing both of those things, but doing both of them does count for something. Being an enchantment should also be a big plus in this set, so this should be able to find a few good homes.

Spellbook Vendor

Rating: 8/10

This card has a lot going for it. It has great stats upfront and provides a ton of free value turn after turn. The only thing holding this card’s power level back is the fact that you can only have one role on each creature. But, if you have enough ways to sacrifice them, that shouldn’t be too bad. This seems incredible if it can keep giving you a free role every turn.

Stockpiling Celebrant

Rating: 4/10

We’ve seen quite a few powerful ETB triggers that this let’s reuse. Better yet, we can pick up one of our many adventure creatures and get value from reusing their spells. Unless I had plenty of these interactions, I wouldn’t play this.

Stroke of Midnight

Rating: 4/10

We have seen laughably bad versions of cards like this in the past, but I’m hopeful that this is decent. The issue is that this is extremely bad as an early/mid-game removal spell. Turning a random 3/3 into a 1/1 is not a winning play. It’s a lot more reasonable if you’re answering a bomb rare, though.

The Princess Takes Flight

Rating: 5/10

Removing a creature for a couple of turns and giving one of your creatures +2/+2 and flying is something that an aggressive deck loves. Sacrificing the saga to some other effect before chapter three goes off is particularly strong. The creature won’t come back, so the black/white deck can really make use of it.

Three Blind Mice

Rating: 4/10

This would be so much better if this just made three mice and then gave them +1/+1 and vigilance. However, the second and third chapters are designed to be a little stronger than that, but with a major downside. If you play this early, then your opponent can just remove your first mouse token and then the rest of this card does nothing. That’s a very big downside and might be enough to make this card terrible.

Tuinvale Guide

Rating: 4/10

This is a decent, solid flier. Gaining lifelink pretty often is a great way to swing damage races in your favor making this a great card for the top of a curve in a white aggro deck.

Unassuming Sage

Rating: 4/10

Much like the kicker creatures of old, the option of this being a 2-mana 2/2 or a 4-mana 3/3 that scries when it attacks is the real prize for this card. Neither option is particularly exciting, but the choice itself has a lot of value.

Virtue of Loyalty

Rating: 10/10

Brokers Ascendancy was an absurdly broken card back in Streets of New Capenna and this might be even better. It costs 5 mana, but it has a stronger effect and the powerful adventure side means you’re happy to draw it at any point in the game. That combination makes for an absurd mythic that I expect to be one of the best cards in the set.

Werefox Bodyguard

Rating: 9/10

A Banisher Priest with flash is an excellent card. Flash enables it to screw up combats and swing them in your favor, especially if you eat up one-half of a double-block.

Blue

Aquatic Alchemist

Rating: 5/10

This is considerably better than all of the (frankly pathetic) Archaeomancer variants that we’ve had lately. Putting a card on top of your library is still not a good plan, but you can always run this out as a solid 2-drop. The flexibility really pulls its weight here and I imagine it’ll end up being good.

Archive Dragon

Rating: 5/10

This is an absurdly big flier for an uncommon. It’s a nice way to top the curve of any blue deck, but it should be especially strong in the blue/green ramp deck.

Asinine Antics

Rating: 3/10

I don’t like this mythic rare. Downgrading creatures to 1/1s is already a dubious plan, so I want to be doing something else worthwhile. Downgrading all of them is a bit more interesting, but spending a whole card to do this sounds like a lot has to go right for this to be a winning play. Those creatures still have their abilities and still get buffed by their counters/auras or whatever else. If someone can prove me wrong, that would be awesome, but until then, I’ll remain skeptical.

Beluna’s Gatekeeper

Rating: 3/10

You never want to play a six-drop vanilla creature these days, but I’ll take one with a good adventure half. This adventure is a bit mediocre, but should still be useful in the early game. The combination of both cards is okay, but I don’t think it’s anything special.

Bitter Chill

Rating: 7/10

Charmed Sleep and Claustrophobia have become close to unplayable in recent years, but we’ve consistently seen 2-mana variants perform very well, particularly Winter's Rest from Modern Horizons. The fact that this is a 2-mana variant with absolutely no conditions or downsides makes me hopeful that it’ll be strong. Better yet, we have an archetype that cares about tapping creatures and a way to draw a card if the opponent removes it which is bound to make this a premium removal spell.

Chancellor of Tales

Rating: 7/10

Lucky Clover was one of the most broken cards from Throne of Eldraine and ended up banned in Standard. Of course, part of that brokenness was being a 2-drop, but the effect was something you always wanted in Limited. I would assume that having that same effect on a medium-sized flier is still a powerful card in a deck like blue/red or blue/green which both have a lot of adventure spells.

Diminisher Witch

Rating: 4/10

This is the way I like to put a curse on something. The bargain needs to be worth it, but doing this as an ETB trigger is a great deal. You can always play it as a vanilla 3-drop in a pinch, too.

Disdainful Stroke

Rating: 4/10

This is a solid counterspell that we’ve seen many times before. Naturally, it’s terrible against low-curve aggro decks but excellent against slower decks. I’d probably play it at first, but as the metagame evolves we can get a better understanding of how likely we are to want to put this in our decks. Also, don’t be afraid to side it out if it looks bad in the matchup.

Extraordinary Journey

Rating: 6/10

What a weird card. Let’s translate it a little bit. For 4 mana, you’re effectively bouncing a creature since it can be recast. Then, when it’s recast, you draw a card. You also draw a card whenever a creature is cast from exile, such as from adventure. I think that all of that, as well as the option to cast it for more mana and bounce more targets, adds up to be quite a strong card.

Farsight Ritual

Rating: 4/10

Memory Deluge this is not. These kinds of draw spells can be strong, but only if the format is slow enough to allow it. Even then, this isn’t much better than an effect that we’d expect to see at common or uncommon these days.

Freeze in Place

Rating: 4/10

It’s nice to get a strict upgrade over Impede Momentum. That wasn’t a particularly great card, but in the white/blue creature-tapping archetype, this will probably be a solid pseudo-removal spell.

Gadwick’s First Duel

Rating: 4/10

As I said when talking about Asinine Antics, cursed roles are only going to be worth it if you get something else along with them. This isn’t exactly what I had in mind, but I think this should play out well since it’s cheap enough to give you value.

Galvanic Giant

Rating: 6/10

I really dislike Hill Giant’s stats, but this is so much more than that. It's a nice crossover build-around that does work in both the blue/green and blue/white archetypes. The adventure side is really overcosted, so I don’t think we’ll be casting it that often, but we’re happy to have it there for when we can.

Horned Loch-Whale

Rating: 8/10

The big selling point here is the incredibly strong blue removal adventure spell that’s reminiscent of Azorius Charm. Except most good removal spells don’t come with huge 6-drop bombs attached. This is essentially the biggest Man-o'-War you’ll ever come across.

Ice Out

Rating: 4/10

Cancel tends to range in rating from a 1 to a 5 depending on the speed of the set. The bargain cost reduction makes this significantly better, but ultimately, the card’s power level will be determined by whether or not you have the time to leave this open instead of committing to the board.

Icewrought Sentry

Rating: 6/10

I’d already be sold on a blue variant of Nimble Hobbit, but this comes with so much extra functionality. Having vigilance, better stats, the ability to grow, and the perfect archetype for it to slot into are all major upsides that turn this into something that pulls you into the white/blue deck.

Ingenious Prodigy

Rating: 6/10

This is an interesting creature and a decent play to make at pretty much any point on the curve. It reminds me a bit of Aeon Chronicler which was an excellent card back in the day. Times have changed, but at least this card can be a powerful threat on the board while you draw extra cards each turn.

Into the Fae Court

Rating: 4/10

I have to say this a lot with cards in blue, but this is a card that will only be good if the format is slow enough to accommodate it. If that’s the case, then 5 mana to draw three cards and create a faerie token is a great deal and something I’m very happy to play.

Johann’s Stopgap

Rating: 4/10

Bouncing a permanent and drawing a card is a fantastic ability to have on an instant… oh wait. This is a sorcery. Yeah, that’s much worse. It’s still good for a tempo play and the bargain cost is nice to have, but these cards need to be instant to be desirable.

Living Lectern

Rating: 4/10

The sorcerer role isn’t too powerful, but getting it plus an extra card for just 3 mana seems pretty decent. Casting it as a 0/4 to block early aggression also seems good, and cashing it in later makes up for the downside of becoming irrelevant towards the end of the game.

Merfolk Coralsmith

Rating: 3/10

The biggest thing holding this card back is that it doesn’t really have a home in any of the format’s decks. Still, it’s a 3-drop that can trade up on mana and scry when it does, so it’s not too bad if you need another creature.

Misleading Motes

Rating: 5/10

All of the other versions of this removal spell have been really solid recently. This is especially good in the blue/red spells deck which is looking for as much interaction as it can get its hands on.

Mocking Sprite

Rating: 3/10

Making spells cost less isn’t all that useful in Limited, but a 2/1 flier for 3 mana isn’t bad. It’s a fine card if not just a little mediocre in modern Limited sets.

Obyra’s Attendants

Rating: 5/10

The adventure spell should be good enough of a combat trick to eat a creature in combat, and you get a nice, big flier on top of that later on. This should be a great card with only a little bit of work put into it.

Picklock Prankster

Rating: 5/10

Faerie decks need solid 2-drops, and any that also draw a spell from your top four should be high on their list.

Quick Study

Rating: 4/10

Instant-speed is a really nice upgrade on the classic Divination. It allows you to leave up mana for a piece of interaction and then cash this in as a backup plan. I’m sure this can find a home in the format and the slower it is, the better this becomes.

Sleep-Cursed Faerie

Rating: 6/10

One mana for a 3/3 with flying and ward 2 is unbelievably strong, but is the downside something we can live with or get around? The earlier you play it, the better, as it can sit on the board removing stun counters each turn. Later on, entering tapped will feel more like a liability, but you can always turbo-untap it if you have enough mana to remove each of the stun counters. I think the upside of a cheap, early threat outweighs the late game downsides.

Sleight of Hand

Rating: 4/10

This is a nice reprint of a classic 1-mana cantrip spell. We don’t typically need these in our Limited decks, but the blue/red spells deck wants as many cheap spells as it can get, so this should fit right at home there.

Snaremaster Sprite

Rating: 5/10

A split card pairing Zephyr Sprite and a flying Frost Lynx sounds incredible to me. I’m unlikely to want to run it out on turn 1 since the tempo swing later on is so powerful, but having the option is nice.

Spell Stutter

Rating: 5/10

This looks very strong in a dedicated faerie deck. Quench is powerful in the early game but is too easy to play around later. With enough faeries out, this downside is mitigated somewhat. In many situations, it’s as good as a hard counter.

Splashy Spellcaster

Rating: 4/10

This is a nice trigger for when you cast instants or sorceries, but it conflicts with the deck’s usual strategy. You need creatures to put roles on, but you also need other spells to get this to trigger. If you can get it to line up nicely then the payoff is there, but it likely requires too much work.

Stormkeld Prowler

Rating: 4/10

This one has me stumped. On the one hand, a 2/1 for 2-mana is pretty bad. But getting two +1/+1 counters whenever you cast a big spell is a really large bonus, and, in the right deck, it shouldn’t take too long before it’s a huge threat. I’m willing to try it at first, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was unplayable in a couple of weeks.

Succumb to the Cold

Rating: 5/10

Printing a Frost Breath variant in a set with a whole creature-tapping archetype was inevitable. This is likely very strong in that deck and still desirable in some other strategies.

Talion’s Messenger

Rating: 7/10

Is it that strange to compare this to Ledger Shredder? Sure, it costs 1 more mana, but it’s easier to trigger and you get to spread the +1/+1 counters among any faeries you like. I’d say that’s a pretty good deal in faeries and possibly even any blue deck.

Tenacious Tomeseeker

Rating: 5/10

Even if you have to bargain for it, a 3-mana Archaeomancer is an incredibly powerful card. Enabling this is well worth it when you pick up a powerful removal or draw spell, especially in the blue/red deck.

Vantress Transmuter

Rating: 4/10

This is a pretty annoying adventure spell. Tapping a creature and turning it into a 1/1, even as a sorcery, should help to stall out the clock a bit and push through some damage. Even a vanilla 4-drop is enough of an upside on top of that to make this a worthwhile card to play.

Virtue of Knowledge

Rating: 2/10

I once went 3-0 in a draft on day two of a Grand Prix thanks partly to Panharmonicon. Sadly, that’s not because the card is great, but because the card was specifically good in my deck. The same is true here. I can picture decks that want this card, but it’s too situational to do much outside of a deck with lots of triggers for it to double.

Water Wings

Rating: 2/10

Blue has had a good run of these effects lately, but they’ve all been able to buff a creature and give you a little bit of extra value. This gives hexproof which just isn’t the kind of impact we’re looking for. It gives the card extra functionality, but it’s not something blue decks are typically after.

Black

Ashiok’s Reaper

Rating: 7/10

The stats aren’t good, but this is the exact kind of payoff I’m looking to pick up for the black/white archetype to come together. If that archetype has any chance of succeeding, this is surely going to be a part of it.

Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator

Rating: 10/10

This new Ashiok does pretty much everything we want a planeswalker to do in Limited. It makes creature tokens to protect you and also draws you cards to advance your board state while growing the creature tokens. If it could kill opposing creatures, then it’d be perfect, but as it stands, it’s more than good enough. If you can -2 right away and use another -2 on the following turn, then exiling just a couple of cards should put you well ahead on the board. There’s a lot to like about this card and it’ll most likely make the entire game about it as soon as it hits the board.

Back for Seconds

Rating: 5/10

Soul Salvage was an excellent card whenever we saw it. This is a nice upgrade that offers great mana advantage if you bargain it. I can imagine any black deck playing this, and the ones that are looking for sac outlets will be actively searching for it.

Barrow Naughty

Rating: 4/10

Lifelink plus the ability to grow seems like some nice upsides on what will otherwise be a very solid 2-drop. It has an obvious home in faeries, but it’s still solid in other black decks if you need to fill that spot on your curve.

Beseech the Mirror

Rating: 1/10

While this looks like it has some very interesting applications in constructed, it’s mostly useless in Limited. It might be good in a deck that actively wants to bargain, like the white/black deck. However, it’s just plain bad if it ends up being a simple Demonic Tutor most of the time. The triple black casting cost also makes it super hard to cast in most decks.

Candy Grapple

Rating: 7/10

This seems like the best black common, and maybe even the best common in the set. Like Vicious Offering and Final Flourish before it, this is a fantastic removal spell that scales as the game goes on. This one is even better in the early game as -3/-3 should be enough to kill off most 1-3 mana creatures and even a lot of 4-drops too. This is by far the best variant of this card that we’ve ever had and I expect it to perform like it.

Conceited Witch

Rating: 4/10

This creature is fine as is, but the adventure side makes for a nice combination that’ll come in handy when you draw it late.

Dream Spoilers

Rating: 4/10

This looks like a strong build-around, but I don’t think it’s actually that good. -1/-1 for each spell is such a small bonus to get and the creature itself is incredibly overcosted. I feel like it’s missing flash so that it fits better with the kinds of spells it’s asking you to cast, but unless you’re allowed the time to get this down and then cast multiple instants, you’re just not going to get enough out of it.

Ego Drain

Rating: 2/10

This looks a lot like Thoughtseize, but too often it’ll be just as bad as Specter's Shriek was in the last Eldraine set. Back then, the card looked promising but was generally bad, even when you sided it in. I could see this being passable in a very faerie-heavy deck, but I’d steer clear of it everywhere else.

Eriette’s Whisper

Rating: 3/10

Getting a wicked role out of the deal isn’t going to make or break this card. Either you want a Mind Rot or you don’t. If you do, then the wicked role is a nice bonus to get on top of it.

Faerie Dreamthief

Rating: 7/10

This is a really exceptional 1-drop. It's great to play on turn 1 and not that bad when you draw it late since you can just chump block with it and then cash in for a new card. The faerie deck would love this, but it should be fine in any black deck.

Faerie Fencing

Rating: 6/10

Death Wind is pretty far from a premium removal spell, but it’s fairly flexible. In the faeries deck, this turns into premium removal and it’s likely to come around to you if that’s what you’re drafting.

Feed the Cauldron

Rating: 4/10

This is a little weak for a removal spell, but getting a food out of the deal is a nice trade. If only it could trade up on mana values and potentially kill 4- or 5-drops and we’d have a premium removal spell on our hands.

Fell Horseman

Rating: 5/10

It’s a little expensive, but this is still basically a Gravedigger with a couple of extra steps built in. That gravedigger effect is more than good enough to keep my attention and it represents a lot of mid-late game value.

Gumdrop Poisoner

Rating: 8/10

Cracking a food makes this a very simple 2-for-1 play for just 5 total mana. With a food built in with its adventure spell, it’s even easier to make work. Extra life gain or another food makes this even more broken and allows it to take down basically any creature. On top of all of that, a 3/2 lifelinker for 3 mana is also great, so there’s nothing to dislike about this card.

High Fae Negotiator

Rating: 5/10

Comparing this to Vampire Sovereign is kind of shocking. But still, even if you have to bargain for it, a big flier plus a six-point life swing is an exceptional play and I expect a lot of black decks to be interested in this curve-topper.

Hopeless Nightmare

Rating: 5/10

The white/black deck is looking for cards like this to enable its various payoffs. This gives you enough value upfront that it’s never a bad card to run out. Plus, it’s cheap enough that it fits into any spot on your curve. Just in case you don’t have a sac outlet for it, it has one built right in for good measure. You might not want this in every deck, but it’s a great roleplayer in the right one.

Lich-Knights’ Conquest

Rating: 8/10

The more I think about this, the more I like it. White/black and black/red both have an abundance of permanents that they want to sacrifice, and this is a great way of sacrificing a lot of them at once. You don’t even need any good targets in the graveyard like you do with other reanimation spells since you’re getting multiple targets back at once. Let’s say you sacrifice three permanents, then you get back three three-drops. That’s a great deal when the permanents you sacrifice are throwaway rat tokens or enchantments that’ll trigger your abilities. This does require a little setup, but it has some good homes for it and I think it’ll overperform.

Lord Skitter’s Blessing

Rating: 7/10

This feels less like Phyrexian Arena and a little more like Call to the Ring, and the latter was a very good card in the LotR format. For 2 mana, you get a pair of very disposable enchantments to eventually sacrifice, but you also get to draw extra cards each turn if you keep your wicked creature around. There’s a lot to like about all of that and you can’t go wrong for just 2 mana .

Lord Skitter’s Butcher

Rating: 6/10

A 3-mana 2/3 that can create a 1/1 when it enters is already great. All of these extra options are just sweet free bonuses. The rats deck looks good and cards like this are the reasons why.

Lord Skitter, Sewer King

Rating: 8/10

Look! It’s Goblin Rattlemaster! Ok, I had to get one pun of my own in. Lord Skitter is an incredible bomb rare. Even though the tokens can’t block, creating a free rat every turn is a great advantage. If left untouched, Lord Skitter will slowly generate an unbeatable board presence that, with the help of other cards, will surely overwhelm most opponents.

Mintstrosity

Rating: 4/10

The pun quality is top-notch here. The card itself is nothing particularly special, but it’s still strong, especially in the food deck.

Not Dead After All

Rating: 4/10

These tricks are always just on the cusp of being good enough. I think this one probably is, as bringing the creature back along with a free enchantment gives you fodder for the white/black deck and even triggers celebration.

Rat Out

Rating: 3/10

Fungal Infection turned out great because blocking with the saproling allowed it to trade with two-toughness creatures. This isn’t quite as good, but it’s still something that the rats deck is likely to want.

Rankle’s Prank

Rating: 7/10

Barter in Blood gets a nice little upgrade here. It requires some setup, but since you know you’re going to play it, you can trade creatures off in advance and play it at a time when you won’t lose anything. You can pick and choose the extra modes when they benefit you, but we care more about killing creatures on the board. Hence, I would side it out against go-wide decks like the black/red rats deck.

Rowan’s Grim Search

Rating: 4/10

An instant-speed black draw spell like this is already something that we’d be interested in for Limited. Throw in the ability to be a sac outlet for the decks that need them and I think we’ve got a winner.

Scream Puff

Rating: 2/10

Love the name. The card, a little less so. It’s certainly strong, but 5-drops are a dime a dozen these days and most decks won’t care enough to pick this up.

Shatter the Oath

Rating: 5/10

We’re not typically in the market for a 5-mana sorcery-speed removal spell, but this is still one of the better ones we’ve ever seen. Ultimately, this kills nearly anything and gives you a nice wicked role for your troubles, so it is definitely still worth playing.

Specter of Mortality

Rating: 9/10

Assuming you know this thing is coming, you can aggressively trade off creatures to feed into this, giving you an eventual game-winning play akin to a Massacre Girl. Given that your options for this are either to play it as a half-decent flier or to put some effort in and turn it into a creature that wipes the board, you can’t go wrong with it. There are even going to be situations where just exiling a single creature will let you clear out a board of rat tokens.

Spiteful Hexmage

Rating: 5/10

This isn’t a particularly good card, but it’s definitely useful in certain scenarios. If you have a spare 1/1 creature then you can put the cursed role onto it with no downside and have yourself a 3/2 for just 1 mana. Whichever way you do it, this is a 1-mana way to trigger celebration and it gives you fodder for bargain and other sacrifice cards.

Stingblade Assassin

Rating: 4/10

These kinds of cards can vary from nearly unplayable to pretty good. Given the multitude of cheap creatures and 1/1 rat tokens in this set, I can see this leaning toward being good.

Sugar Rush

Rating: 2/10

This is pretty weak as far as combat tricks go since it doesn’t help your creature to survive the combat. Still, the fact that it draws a card means it’s not so bad. It kind of reminds me of Bladebrand, though it doesn’t do quite as much.

Sweettooth Witch

Rating: 5/10

This is a more aggressively-slanted version of Tempting Witch. That card was very good the last time we were on Eldraine and I expect this one to perform well this time too.

Taken by Nightmares

Rating: 7/10

Can’t go wrong with a simple, unconditional removal spell. Removal is extremely valuable and this is cheap enough that every deck is very happy to see it.

Tangled Colony

Rating: 7/10

As far as aggressive creatures go, a 2-mana 3/2 that your opponent really doesn’t want to trade with is pretty sweet. Not being able to block is a hefty downside that restricts this to only being played in aggressive decks, but it’s a perfect fit there.

The End

Rating: 7/10

This is little more than just another unconditional removal spell. The extraction effect is a minor upgrade, but not something that we need to pay any attention to. Just like Taken by Nightmares, every black deck is happy with this and nothing else needs to be said.

The Witch’s Vanity

Rating: 6/10

A 2-mana saga that gives three relatively minor abilities seems pretty good. Assuming you have plenty of targets for the removal mode in chapter one, this card is good and you can look at the other two modes as free bonuses. Most decks have those targets, so you should definitely start it and side it out if needed.

Twisted Sewer-Witch

Rating: 8/10

On its own, this creature is 5 mana for a 3/4 and a 2/2 that hits the opponent for one when it dies. But beyond that, it can provide so much more value if you just have a few rats on the board. This even puts a wicked role onto nontoken rats you control, which should be many when you’ve drafted the deck well. This is a very high rating for an uncommon, but I can’t imagine a win condition that I would want more if I was drafting the rat typal deck.

Virtue of Persistence

Rating: 10/10

Oh boy. If this enchantment didn’t have an adventure, it would be completely unplayable. A 7-mana enchantment that, while powerful, doesn’t immediately affect the board, is a liability to play in your deck. If you draw it early, it’s uncastable and gets stuck in your hand. If you draw it late, it’s not even guaranteed that it’s a good play.

All of that is completely negated by having a very good adventure side. Now, you don’t need to even cast the 7-drop side for it to make a big impact on the game. Just the adventure side on its own would be a 5 or 6/10 already. Being that first and a win condition later makes for one obscene combination that I expect to be one of the best cards in the set.

Voracious Vermin

Rating: 5/10

Two rats for 3 mana sounds like a great deal and one of them even continues to grow. This is perfect for the rats deck and still good in other black decks on rate alone.

Warehouse Tabby

Rating: 4/10

Look at him! He’s adorable! This tabby cat is quite impressive, but mainly as a cheap creature that can gain deathtouch. The enchantment trigger is very medium and not something worth focusing on, though it’s a nice bonus that is likely to happen whenever a creature with a role on it dies.

Wicked Visitor

Rating: 4/10

While this isn’t exactly a premium payoff for enchantments going to the graveyard, it’s still a 2/2 for 2 mana, so there’s hardly any downside to playing it.

Red

Belligerent of the Ball

Rating: 7/10

If you can reliably get celebration active then this is a powerhouse. +1/+0 and menace are bigger bonuses than you might realize, and this creature’s raw stats are high enough that it’s even strong when you don’t get two permanents out in a turn.

Bellowing Bruiser

Rating: 5/10

Stopping creatures from blocking isn’t exactly removal, but in an aggro deck, it’s a surprisingly powerful ability to have access to. Especially when there’s a big haste creature that you get for free on a later turn. This looks kind of weak, but I think you’ll be surprised at just how dangerous it ends up being.

Bespoke Battlegarb

Rating: 2/10

Equipment is hard to use in Limited, but this does at least equip for free relatively often in the celebration deck. Still, it’s such a weak payoff and you can probably do much better.

Boundary Lands Ranger

Rating: 5/10

The fact that this card doesn’t cost any resources to use means that you can play it early and filter your later draws for free. The failsafe of being a 2/2 for 2 mana is perfectly reasonable too.

Charming Scoundrel

Rating: 6/10

This is a cool riff on the old Charming Prince, the joke being that it’s a charm (having three useful modes to use). This one is a little less powerful than its predecessor, but you always have the default of it being a 2/2 haste that hits them for one when it dies. Also, being a Wily Goblin to ramp you to a 4-drop on turn 3 sounds like a good outcome.

Cut In

Rating: 6/10

We like our common removal spells and this seems like a sweet one. Four mana is kind of a lot, but you’re getting enough damage and a nice additional effect that makes the cost worth paying.

Edgewall Pack

Rating: 4/10

You’ve got to love this card. The flavor text and the fact that it’s a pack of dogs with a rat riding them is just brilliant. The card’s not so bad either, giving you two bodies for 4 mana. Chimney Rabble surprised everyone by being the best red common in Phyrexia: All Will be One, though that was in part because of haste. Menace is also good, so it might end up being similarly powerful.

Embereth Veteran

Rating: 5/10

A 2/1 doesn’t need to do much else to be a desirable 1-drop. Being able to turn it into a young hero role seems like a bit of a downgrade, but in a situation where the 2/1 is outclassed, say by a 3/3, you can push another creature through which seems like a solid play to make.

Flick a Coin

Rating: 4/10

There’s probably enough going on with this card to make it good. Creating a Treasure and drawing a card isn’t quite enough for 3 mana, so I think you ideally want to also be Zapping a small creature. That being said, I would probably try this at first and then side it out if my opponent doesn’t have enough good targets.

Food Fight

Rating: 7/10

This has got to be a fun build-around. Turning all of your artifacts into Vial of Dragonfires sounds like a powerful effect assuming of course you can create plenty of artifacts. It really needs the right deck to work in, but if you can make it work then it takes over the game. It reminds me of something like Burning Vengeance, which was one of the most fun decks to draft back in Innistrad.

Frantic Firebolt

Rating: 6/10

This deals enough damage that most red decks will be happy enough to play it. Just one instant or sorcery in the graveyard lets this do 3 damage, which is just enough for it to start trading evenly on mana. If you’re in the blue/red spells deck, then all of a sudden this becomes big enough to kill any creature. This is bound to be one of the best commons in the set.

Gnawing Crescendo

Rating: 2/10

It’s weird that this card only gives nontoken creatures that trigger since the creatures you really want to give +2/+0 to are the 1/1 rat tokens. Hence, I doubt this is even better than a simple Trumpet Blast. The card should perform well once you’ve gone wide and you can use this to swing a combat or get in for lethal, so I wouldn’t put much stock in the triggered abilities.

Goddric, Cloaked Reveler

Rating: 8/10

A 3/3 with haste for 3 mana is already very strong, so being able to turn into a 4/4 flying dragon pushes this right into bomb rare territory. We’ve already seen a lot of cards that put two permanents onto the battlefield using just a single card, so this should be relatively easy to trigger.

Grabby Giant

Rating: 4/10

It’s pretty cool that you can use the adventure side on turn 2 and then cast the giant on turn 3. Regardless of that, the creature side is really potent, especially for its ability to stay relevant in the late game.

Grand Ball Guest

Rating: 4/10

This is a solid 2/2 for 2 with a nice upside. Even if you can’t trigger it often, some decks just need 2-drops and this is a serviceable one.

Harried Spearguard

Rating: 5/10

One-drops have a tendency to overperform these days, and this has all the hallmarks of one that will do that. Great for early aggression, a good chump blocker for value in the late game, and it slots perfectly into the rats deck. What’s not to love?

Hearth Elemental

Rating: 7/10

Tolarian Terror ended up being a busted card in Dominaria United and I don’t see this being any less powerful. Having an adventure mode makes this actually seem more like a Bedlam Reveler if you play it right, and it’s a great payoff for casting all of your spells early and emptying your hand.

Imodane, the Pyrohammer

Rating: 6/10

Your red deck is presumably going to have a burn spell or two, so turning them all into Searing Blaze is a decent upgrade. However, it’s not that impactful in most situations and will often just be a 4/4. That’s a decent stat line to fall back on, so I’m not planning to ever cut this, it just isn’t particularly exciting to see.

Oh, and Imodane makes for a great Commander!

Kindled Heroism

Rating: 2/10

I’ve never been a fan of Kindled Fury. I probably won’t play it but I’m sure I’ll lose to it at least once. It does its job, but it’s just not a priority to pick up in draft or to include in your deck.

Korvold and the Noble Thief

Rating: 3/10

Stealing my opponent’s cards is one of my favorite effects in the whole game. However, a 4-mana play that doesn’t affect the board and doesn’t give you an advantage until two turns later seems a bit too slow. The card is strong, but there’s a good chance you won’t have the time to use it. It does trigger celebration on the turn you play it though, so that’s worth remembering.

Merry Bards

Rating: 4/10

This is a solid creature that fills your curve as a 3-drop or, better yet, turns a different creature into a young hero to let it attack into your opponent’s blockers.

Minecart Daredevil

Rating: 3/10

Rimrock Knight turned out to be a pretty powerful adventure creature in the last set. As similar as this card looks, the cost increase makes it significantly worse even with the slightly increased stats. I would lean towards not playing it, but I’d like to be proved wrong about it as it does potentially protect your creature in combat.

Monstrous Rage

Rating: 4/10

One-mana combat tricks tend to be quite powerful. +3/+1 and trample doesn’t help your creature survive combat particularly well, but leaving the monster role behind is great. I’m a big fan of combat tricks that leave something behind and this looks good enough to pay attention to.

Raging Battle Mouse

Rating: 5/10

As much as I love the concept of a “Raging Battle Mouse,” I think this is a very underwhelming rare. +1/+1 for just the turn isn’t quite the bonus I was hoping to see on a rare celebration payoff. It’s definitely a good 2-drop, but I just expected more.

Ratcatcher Trainee

Rating: 5/10

A 2-drop 2/1 that has first strike on your turn would already be a solid pickup for any aggressive deck, just as Fresh-Faced Recruit was. Add on a solid adventure spell and this becomes something you’ll actively seek out when you’re in black and red.

Realm-Scorcher Hellkite

Rating: 10/10

I remember learning how to draft with Innistrad and being introduced to Olivia Voldaren as the best card in the set, primarily because she could ping away at creatures turn after turn. This hellkite can’t take control of creatures like Olivia did, but it hits a lot harder. If you bargain with it, you get a couple of free pings out of the deal. The whole package is great and likely to dominate the board as soon as you play it.

Redcap Gutter-Dweller

Rating: 9/10

What an incredible rare. Board presence, a sac outlet, card advantage, and an ever-growing menace threat and something that does all of those things pretty well. You don’t even need to be in the rats deck for this one since it feeds itself so well.

Redcap Thief

Rating: 5/10

This is a little improvement on a card we’ve seen a few times before, and I don’t see it being any less good. It still ramps you into a 5-drop on the next turn, and with so many expensive adventure creatures in the set, you can use all the mana you can get your hands on.

Rotisserie Elemental

Rating: 5/10

This is kind of like a weaker Bomat Courier. The menace lets it connect a little easier, but that balances with the fact that you have to connect in order to sacrifice it and get your extra cards. I like the courier better, but this is still a nasty and aggressive little 1-drop that provides value on board well into the game.

Skewer Slinger

Rating: 4/10

I like this in the blue/red deck as it’s an incredible defensive body. It’s able to block and kill two-toughness creatures effectively. It’s not great at attacking since your opponent really doesn’t want to block, but doesn’t need to because a 1-power creature isn’t a threat. Still, it’s good enough for its defensive power alone.

Song of Totentanz

Rating: 8/10

X hasty 1/1s for just is a fantastic deal. You’ll easily be able to put 5 or 6 mana into this at the end of your curve, and if you have anything going on to support those new tokens, then you should be winning the game in short order. Even just making a few tokens in the mid game to build up a board is still a good option.

Stonesplitter Bolt

Rating: 7/10

An instant speed Blaze is still good these days. I don’t think you necessarily want to bargain it, but it’s a nice option to help you take down larger creatures on the cheap.

Tattered Ratter

Rating: 6/10

1/1 rat tokens that can’t block have the inherent downside of getting outclassed by 2/2s and bigger creatures from very early on in the game. This creature is perfect for helping them trade up against bigger threats and lets you start pushing for damage much earlier than you would normally be able to. It also has a solid statline on its own, meaning you’re not putting an otherwise bad creature into your deck in order to get the effect.

Torch the Tower

Rating: 6/10

Voltage Surge was one of the best commons in Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty and this is no different. It only hits for three damage rather than four, but it still trades nicely for most early to mid-level threats and is surely one of the best commons in this set.

Twisted Fealty

Rating: 5/10

Here is our usual Threaten effect. It’s great that it leaves behind a lasting bonus, but ultimately, you’ll only be playing this if you have ways to sacrifice the creature you steal. Playing this to swing a combat in your favor is only a winning play when you’re already close to winning. The value of this card is highly dependent on how many ways you have of sacrificing the creature, to the point where I wouldn’t take it until I had something to do that.

Two-Headed Hunter

Rating: 6/10

This looks pretty powerful. Double strike combat tricks are usually strong but difficult to find room for in your deck. Tacked on to a strong 5-drop for free is exactly where I want to see it, making the overall package a worthwhile inclusion for any deck.

Unruly Catapult     

Rating: 4/10

I love cards like this. Brimstone Trebuchet, Lobber Crew, and others like it are great defensive cards that feel right at home in aggro decks. This can stay back and block while continuously applying pressure each turn, and it’s really easy to untap and reuse this turn after turn.

Virtue of Courage

Rating: 3/10

Two mana for a Shock is pretty weak and the enchantment is nothing to brag about either. It’s too hard to trigger and does nothing when you play it. While not the weakest of the virtue cycle, it’s far from being good.

Witch’s Mark

Rating: 4/10

The spells deck is particularly interested in a card like this, and it’s a great upgrade over the classic Tormenting Voice. It’s certainly cuttable, but cheap draw spells are exactly what a spells deck wants.

Witchstalker Frenzy

Rating: 7/10

This is honestly bordering on an 8/10. The potential of a 1-mana burn spell that deals five damage to a creature is pretty obscene. Note that this counts your opponent’s attacking creatures too, so you can let your opponent attack into you and have that discount the card when you use it defensively. This is incredibly efficient and one of the best nonrares in the entire set.

Green

Agatha’s Champion

Rating: 7/10

You really need to be looking to pay the bargain cost on this, so playing it in a deck with plenty of sacrifice fodder is paramount. Saying that, we have the black/green food deck and the green/white roles deck which both have plenty of throwaway permanents for it. It requires a little setup, but getting a green Ravenous Chupacabra is enough to reward you for that.

Beanstalk Wurm

Rating: 5/10

Explore without the extra card is a pretty terrible card. But what if the extra card you got was always a 5/4 for 5? In Limited, I’d take that any day. This card just looks great and is something I’m happy to play in any green deck that wasn’t aggressively slanted.

Bestial Bloodline

Rating: 3/10

Auras are pretty weak in general, but the green/white deck cares about enchanted creatures, and that means this has a good chance of performing in the right build. The fact that it can be brought back without spending cards in the late game does make it more useful than most auras, so I’d probably play this if my deck needed the synergies.

Blossoming Tortoise

Rating: 4/10

This misses the mark pretty hard, I think. The triggered ability is good at ramping you, even if it won’t do so all the time, but the stats are incredibly weak and really a liability that holds the card back. The abilities for land creatures are basically irrelevant, since you’re talking about picking up this mythic rare along with one of the rare creature lands in the set which is incredibly unlikely. This is a constructed plant, not something we care about in Limited. It gets a passing grade, but only barely.

Bramble Familiar

Rating: 9/10

This is obscene! I mean, a really incredible card all around. A 2/2 for 2 mana. It’s incredible when you draw it late. It’s a mana dork that doesn’t become irrelevant in the late game. Mana dorks are already incredibly powerful in Limited and this one goes above and beyond what a mana dork is usually capable of.

Brave the Wilds

Rating: 3/10

I like Lay of the Land well enough, but I don’t think the bargain mode is particularly good or relevant. This is nice for mana fixing if your green deck wants to splash something, but otherwise, I’d probably not bother with it.

Commune with Nature

Rating: 1/10

It’s been a long time since this was last in a Standard set (since Tenth Edition to be precise), but it was a really weak card back then and I don’t see it being any good now. Five cards are a lot to see, but it doesn’t hit something every time and just isn’t needed in any green deck.

Curse of the Werefox

Rating: 6/10

We’ve come a long way since Hunt the Weak. Fight spells tend to be a bit temperamental, but giving your creature a permanent buff before the fight is a great way to make sure yours wins. The monster role that this gives is good for any deck, but especially for the green/white roles deck. It’s going to be snapped up quickly since it’s a common removal for green, so you should prioritize it early.

Elvish Archivist

Rating: 8/10

You have to really try hard to sell me on a 0/1 for 2 mana, but I think this card does that pretty well. The first artifact entering the battlefield turns it into a respectable 2/3, and then it keeps growing on each successive turn. Drawing cards for enchantments is also nice, but I really want it to grow in size first which should be possible with all of the food tokens that green has access to. A lot of decks can make use of this and it snowballs out of control very quickly.

Feral Encounter

Rating: 6/10

That is a hell of a lot of text. Frankly, there are parts we can ignore. The first part of the ability lets you look at your top five cards and grab a creature from among them, but you need to cast it for its mana cost this turn. That’s a really bad effect, especially as you need the mana to do so and we already spent on this.

However, the second part of the effect is just a Rabid Bite at the start of your combat phase, and that’s a pretty good deal. I’m mainly rating it for that part, and you can sometimes get more out of it later on when you’ve got a lot more mana.

Ferocious Werefox

Rating: 4/10

As we saw in Throne of Eldraine, the adventure creatures with combat tricks as their adventure spells perform really well. This is likely no exception, especially as the adventure spell gives a permanent buff and the creature side is very reasonable.

Graceful Takedown

Rating: 7/10

In a deck with plenty of roles, this will probably just kill any creature on the board. Outside of that, it’s still useful as a Rabid Bite. Hence, any deck can play it and be happy, but some decks will be extremely happy to see it.

Gruff Triplets

Rating: 10/10

It’s like a Wurmcoil Engine, only in reverse! A trio of 3/3 trample creatures for 6 mana would be a great deal on its own. When considering the fact that each one dying makes the others huge, I can’t imagine this will do anything but dominate the board when you play it. Your opponent’s best answer is to give them -3/-3, hence the triggers won’t put any counters on the others, but anything short of that won’t work out well for them. You could even grow them with auras and other bonuses and then they distribute even more counters when they die.

This is what I typically imagine a green 10/10 to look like, and it really delivers on all fronts.

Hamlet Glutton

Rating: 6/10

This might be one of the best Honey Mammoth variants we’ve ever seen. Not only do you have a nice, easy way to make it much cheaper, but there’s also a well-supported ramp archetype that wants this. Gaining life while putting a big creature into play is the perfect way to catch up after playing a bunch of ramp spells in the early turns instead of affecting the board meaningfully. This is even a perfect curve after playing Return from the Wilds, which we’ll get to in a bit.

Hollow Scavenger

Rating: 4/10

This seems kind of weak to me, but it’s a perfect card to see early. Make a food on turn 1 then this on turn 3, and your opponent won’t be able to block it profitably on turn 4. I think I’d just stick to playing it in food decks rather than all green decks though.

Howling Galefang

Rating: 6/10

A 4/4 vigilance for 4 mana is a great deal and with so many adventure spells costing 2 or 3 mana, it’s not hard to imagine this having haste on turn four either.

Leaping Ambush

Rating: 2/10

The effect itself on this card is weak, but at least it only costs 1 mana. +3 toughness will help your creature survive most combats, but only +1 power means it won’t necessarily defeat the other creature. This needs to reliably trade for an opponent’s creature to be worth it, and I don’t think it does that enough of the time.

Night of the Sweets’ Revenge

Rating: 7/10

This is a very specific, but very powerful build-around for a food deck. I’d be worried about casting this for 4 mana and effectively wasting your turn, but if you have a few foods already in play, then they get to tap for mana and immediately refund you. For example, if you have two foods in play and you play this on turn 4, you now have three foods and can cast a 3-drop.

You really need to be in the food deck for this to not feel like a liability, but when you are in that deck, it should be amazing. A lot of extra mana plus an eventual Overrun to win the game is exactly what I want out of a build-around.

Redtooth Genealogist

Rating: 3/10

Even though a 2/3 for 3 is nothing exciting, giving a royal role to your 2-drop sounds like an easy way to take an early lead in a game. Its power does begin to wane when you draw it later in the game, but giving ward to a bigger creature can at least disrupt your opponent’s plans enough to be relevant.

Redtooth Vanguard

Rating: 5/10

A 3/1 trample for 2 mana is a great start and being able to come out of the graveyard without using up a card is also great. The thing holding this back significantly is that it costs mana to bring back, which might not be affordable on top of the cost of your enchantment. Costing 4 total mana to bring back and recast on top of the cost of your enchantment makes this pretty clunky, but it’s still a nice upside that I’d be happy to have.

Return from the Wilds

Rating: 6/10

I am used to 3 mana Rampant Growths in Limited being pretty terrible. However, using this to ramp yourself and create a 1/1 basically makes it Farhaven Elf, which is an incredibly strong card. The flexibility of this card is astounding and each mode is relevant at different points in the game. That makes sure it’s basically never dead while fitting into nearly every draftable green deck.

Rootrider Faun

Rating: 5/10

This is a nice upgrade over a simple Druid of the Cowl. Two-drop mana dorks are strong in Limited, so I’d say this is bound to be one of green’s best commons.

Royal Treatment

Rating: 4/10

A cheap trick that grants hexproof is clearly good in the right situation. Leaving behind a royal role is interesting here since the ward will help protect the creature from future interactive spells. This is also a cheap way of creating a relevant role for the green/white deck, so I think enough is happening for decks to be interested in it.

Sentinel of Lost Lore

Rating: 8/10

This is a very aggressively pushed card. It’ll be a constructed sideboard staple for quite some time and it holds its own in Limited too. A 3/4 for 3 mana is just fantastic and the combination of abilities means it’s bound to be relevant in some way. Either hating on your opponent’s adventures, letting you reuse one of yours, or clearing out the graveyard of a blue/red spells player who wanted to build up their Hearth Elemental. Not only that, you can choose all the modes at the same time for a ton of free value.

Skybeast Tracker

Rating: 4/10

I still remember a time when Giant Spider was one of the best green commons in Limited. It has to do a fair bit more work these days, and I think getting you a few free food tokens should be more than good enough to warrant playing this card.

Spider Food

Rating: 3/10

Yet another variant of Broken Wings designed to use a set’s mechanic. This card is much better in sealed than in draft, where your opponent is far more likely to have a relevant target for it. In draft, I’d leave it in the sideboard until you see something you want to destroy. Bear in mind that as the format progresses, you may decide that starting it in the main is a good idea.

Stormkeld Vanguard

Rating: 7/10

Enchantment hate is bound to be relevant in a set with a heavy enchantment theme, so this is surely going to find targets in most games. The creature mode is very powerful too, especially given that you’ve already played a good spell on the adventure side and you get it as a free bonus. Every green deck should be happy with this.

Tanglespan Lookout

Rating: 7/10

Drawing a card for doing the thing your archetype wants you to do is one of the best kinds of build-arounds you can get. If your deck has access to a high number of roles, then this is a slam-dunk pick. I’ll happily take this early and pick up as many roles as I can.

Territorial Witchstalker

Rating: 4/10

Cheap defender creatures with good bodies, like this one, often perform well in Limited. We’ve seen cards like Lambholt Pacifist and Drowsing Tyrannodon be high picks in draft and I would imagine this is no different.

The Huntsman’s Redemption

Rating: 6/10

Chapter two is extremely weak and probably something you don’t bother using, but chapters one and three are more than good enough on their own. A 3/3 token for 3 mana is already good, but when chapter three allows you to Overrun with two of your creatures, you’re bound to get in a bunch of free damage that you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to.

Thunderous Debut

Rating: 0/10

Eight mana is already wildly uncastable, even ignoring the fact that the effect is only worth it if you also pay the bargain cost. Sure, if you spend 8 mana and get, say, two 6-drops from your deck, then the cost was worth paying. But 8-mana spells are too much of a liability and would need to do a lot more than this to be worth it (hello Moonshaker Cavalry).

Titanic Growth

Rating: 2/10

+4/+4 is more than enough to win most combats, but there tend to be better tricks than this. It’s definitely playable, but it isn’t something to be prioritized.

Toadstool Admirer

Rating: 1/10

Not even a relevant creature type was good enough for Jungle Delver. By the time this is a size that lets it brawl in combat, you’ve spent about 13 mana and ward 2 isn’t going to help it survive removal spells that late in the game.

Tough Cookie

Rating: 7/10

How much more do you want a 2-drop to do? It puts two foods onto the battlefield, and it can attack for six damage on turn 3 if you don’t have a better play. Most importantly, in the late game, it can sit back and launch 4/4 foods at your opponent each turn out of the food deck and completely overwhelm your opponent. This looks to me like a better version of Avalanche Caller, one of Kaldheim’s strongest uncommons, which is really saying something.

Troublemaker Ouphe

Rating: 6/10

There are more than enough artifacts and enchantments in this set that playing this as a Reclamation Sage is highly desirable. Even if you don’t have something handy to sacrifice, or you don’t have a target, the failsafe of a 2/2 for 2 mana is perfectly reasonable too.

Up the Beanstalk

Rating: 6/10

This gets a high rating based almost entirely on being able to draw a card when it enters. This is a fantastic build-around card for the green/blue deck, and thanks to drawing a card on entering, you get paid back immediately and won’t feel like you’ve wasted your turn if it takes a while to find the first few expensive spells. There are also bound to be some decks that want this just to play it, draw a card, and then sacrifice it to a bargain cost, giving it extra utility in plenty more archetypes.

Verdant Outrider

Rating: 4/10

4/2s are pretty easy for the opponent to trade for, so the fact that this has the ability to make itself unblockable against these small creatures allows it to actually not trade down. On top of that, this helps enable your red/green cards that care about four-power creatures in play, so it’s probably pretty good.

Virtue of Strength

Rating: 3/10

This is fine as a simple Raise Dead, but the enchantment is virtually unplayable. If you have 7 mana, you definitely don’t need to triple it. You’ll be able to cast anything in your deck at that point.

Welcome to Sweettooth

Rating: 6/10

You get quite a lot out of this card for just 2 mana. A 1/1, a food token, and at least two +1/+1 counters. That’s bound to be a good deal for any deck even though it’s tailor-made for the food deck.

Multicolor

Agatha of the Vile Cauldron

Rating: 1/10

Agatha only really does something if you use something else to make Agatha of the Vile Cauldron bigger. It has some potential but requires a little too much work for a game of Limited, and I doubt it’ll actually be worth it.

Ash, Party Crasher

Rating: 7/10

A 2/2 with haste for 2 mana is already great without an extra ability. It’s incredibly easy to get this up to a 3/3 attacker when you’ve got two cards and we’ve seen so many enablers for celebration that doing so on successive turns should be pretty easy.

Beluna Grandsquall

Rating: 6/10

This card was very clearly designed with Commander in mind. A three-color card is certainly not trivial to cast in this format and there isn’t really an archetype that focuses hard on adventures, though blue/red is fairly close. If you get to cast Beluna or their adventure spell, then the effect is pretty good, but I don’t know if it’s worth straining your mana base to make it happen.

Callous Sell-Sword

Rating: 6/10

Fling is a pretty good spell to put on an adventure spell, seeing as how it’s niche in application. The creature side is very good and trading off creatures in combat shouldn’t be too difficult to do. If your opponent doesn’t bite, then you can just use the adventure mode and then at least the creature side is a 3/3.

Cruel Somnophage

Rating: 7/10

It’s weird to have a 2-drop that you can’t run out on turn 2, but as you veer into the late game, Somnophage really starts to gain traction. All you need to do is trade off a few creatures and this should easily be around a 5/5 or a 6/6 for just 2 mana. Plus, you can use the mill spell adventure to fuel it if you’re in blue. I’d happily play this in a black deck without blue though.

Decadent Dragon

Rating: 9/10

Will the upsides never end? You had me at 4/4 flier for 4 mana, then you threw in an adventure mode, trample, and some extra Treasure tokens and I’m feeling like I’ve ripped someone off for all that. I also love stealing my opponent’s cards, so this is a perfect card for me. Surely, I don’t need to encourage you to play this? And it’s clearly good enough if you only have access to red mana in your deck too.

Devouring Sugarmaw

Rating: 8/10

This is an absurdly big beastie that really isn’t that difficult to keep untapped. The adventure side isn’t a must for that, especially as the black/green food deck should be able to keep it fed, but I would actively try to splash it if I could. It’s easy to see the ability here as a downside that you have little control over, but it’s also free to use, which might be exactly what you’re looking for in a deck that’s looking to sacrifice permanents. A 6/6 with menace and trample also just hits like a truck, so I really like this one and looking forward to trying it out for myself.

Elusive Otter

Rating: 5/10

This is a weird instance where I’m actually far more interested in the adventure spell than the creature itself. A ton of +1/+1 counters distributed however you’d like could let you attack through your opponent’s blockers with several creatures that couldn’t do so before. The creature is far less impressive, so I’d mostly be looking to play this in any green deck. It’s adorable though.

Eriette of the Charmed Apple

Rating: 7/10

I don’t think you can afford to go too deep on Eriette’s first ability, but it’s good with cursed roles. The second ability is pretty powerful given that there are so many roles in the set that you should have a few lying around. If you just have a few auras out, your opponent can’t win without killing her off, kind of like having a Sheoldred, the Apocalypse in play. Your life total will just be too high in a matter of a few turns.

Faunsbane Troll

Rating: 9/10

This is an absurd creature in a vacuum coming down as a 5/5 trample and having the potential to fight any creature you like by shrinking to a 4/4. The continued pressure of being able to turn any aura into a fight spell also pushes this over the top. You just can’t go wrong with this guy.

Frolicking Familiar

Rating: 6/10

You can probably find a target for the adventure spell, but you don’t really need to. A Wind Drake with pseudo-prowess is a great card by itself. This rating, however, is based on you getting a target for the adventure, since killing a small creature and then making a good creature is a great combo that’s well worth playing toward.

Gingerbread Hunter

Rating: 8/10

This is a far easier adventure to find a target for. Early game, killing a 2- or 3-drop and then being a huge giant plus a food is just an incredible amount of value. Once again, I’d still play this card without access to black, but it’s so good I’d try to splash it if I could.

Greta, Sweettooth Scourge

Rating: 7/10

You don’t need to sell me further on a 3/3 and a food token for just 3 mana. I’m probably more interested in drawing cards off of food tokens, like we used to do with Savvy Hunter, but the +1/+1 counters are clearly going to come in handy in the right situations. Having the choice is always great and this is definitely one that will incentivize me to draft the food deck.

Heartflame Duelist

Rating: 8/10

I would likely rate Open Fire as a flat 6/10 anyway, so seeing it as an adventure spell attached to a reasonable creature is more than I could have wished for. This card is obscene and one of the best adventure creatures to pick up and bounce to reuse the adventure side.

Hylda of the Icy Crown

Rating: 9/10

Clearly the most powerful of the three wicked sisters, Hylda is by far the best payoff for this white/blue tapping archetype. Making 4/4 tokens is the mode we’re most interested in, as just a couple of these will create an insurmountable board state that will overwhelm your opponent.

The archetype doesn’t seem to have a lot of cards that properly reward you for tapping down creatures, but you can take Hylda early and build the deck around it. The only thing holding it back from being a 10/10 is that all the ways you have of tapping down creatures cost a significant amount of mana, making it very difficult to use Hylda on the same turn you cast it.

Imodane’s Recruiter

Rating: 7/10

Both sides of this card are exceptional at different times during a game. It’s actually rare to see that your aggressive 3-drop can also be a card that catches you back up on board presence when you draw it much later. Don’t be afraid to run this out as a creature on curve since an aggro deck just wants to play to the board as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Johann, Apprentice Sorcerer

Rating: 6/10

Looks like Gavin Verhey managed to sneak a Future Sight effect into the set again. These cards can be a bit hit or miss since sometimes they’ll do absolutely nothing. But in a well-built spells deck, this is bound to hit at least something before your opponent deals with it. Also, your average control deck will love a 2/5 to block with, so I’d imagine this will really come in handy.

Kellan, the Fae-Blooded

Rating: 7/10

There’s very little you can grab with Kellan’s adventure mode, but grabbing a Cooped Up or similar is a huge plus that increases his value in your deck. A 2/2 double striking 3-drop is great, so just take it if you’re in any aggressive red deck. There are also enough roles in the set, particularly young hero roles, which work so well with Kellan that you definitely don’t need access to white to have it be a dangerous threat on the board.

Likeness Looter

Rating: 8/10

Assuming they’re free to use, like this one is, Merfolk Looters are still extremely powerful for smoothing out your draws. Just for good measure, we’re given flying and the ability to turn into something else in the late game. This has got to be one of a blue/black deck’s best turn-2 plays, but it’s also a great card to draw later on. You can’t ask for much more than that.

Mosswood Dreadknight

Rating: 9/10

I do love a creature that doesn’t die. Sure, you’re priced into recasting its adventure side on a particular turn and that might not always be a good idea, but the fact that you can keep casting it over and over again is a play pattern that easily wins games. Even at rare, I would’ve expected a creature that did this to be far less impactful, yet here it is. I think this card is ridiculous and I’d love to start a draft with it.

Neva, Stalked by Nightmares

Rating: 7/10

You had me at Gravedigger. Honestly, the rest of it is basically irrelevant. It’s nice that it has menace and grows bigger with each enchantment you sacrifice, but that’s not what we’re here for. Neva is relevant at every point of the game without that.

Obyra, Dreaming Duelist

Rating: 6/10

This isn’t exactly the best archetypal payoff, but a 2/2 flash flier for 2 mana is still great, especially early on. The extra life loss will add up over time though, so you really want to focus on as many faeries as you can get your hands on.

Picnic Ruiner

Rating: 7/10

This reminds me a lot of the Elusive Otter we saw earlier, except the creature on this one is much stronger. Three +1/+1 counters should be all we need to make an impactful play. Ideally, we’ve used it to create a four-power creature so that when we cast the goblin itself, it’ll easily have double strike.

Pollen-Shield Hare

Rating: 5/10

White doesn’t have quite as many creature tokens as it usually does, so I don’t know how great the creature’s ability is despite it being so adorable. However, the green spell has me interested. Appeal // Authority was an incredible card back in Hour of Devastation, so I wouldn’t underestimate the power of this pump spell, especially when it has a free 2/2 for 2 attached to it.

Questing Druid

Rating: 5/10

The classic Quirion Dryad fell out of favor because of how terrible it was to draw in the late game. Having the option of casting it instead as Reckless Impulse does mitigate that to some extent, but I’m not 100% sold. You need to be in both colors for this to be good enough to play, but it’s hard to know just how good it is without actually playing with it.

Rowan, Scion of War

Rating: 4/10

As powerful as this ability looks, the fact that it only works if you have lost life on your turn really holds it back. There are so few ways to enable this in the set that Rowan is little more than a vanilla 4/2 with menace. That gives her a passing grade in my view, but not much else.

Ruby, Daring Tracker

Rating: 7/10

A hasty mana dork is incredible, often letting you double spell on the turn you play it. It also has late-game relevancy, so I’m all for it. Not much else needs to be said really.

Scalding Viper

Rating: 6/10

This is essentially a slightly more flexible Man-o'-War, but that’s still really good. It’s a great tempo play, regardless of whether or not you split up the two. I wouldn’t be interested in playing this outside of a deck that could cast both halves, though. You really need the whole package for it to be worth it.

Sharae of Numbing Depths

Rating: 7/10

Not only is Sharae both an enabler and a payoff for the white/blue deck, but it might be the best version of both of these. If this deck’s synergies are going to come together, this is presumably the way to go about it.

Shrouded Shepherd

Rating: 6/10

Shrivel is a spell that is difficult to include in a main deck since it’s so situational. However, the creature side of this is perfectly reasonable in any white deck, so you’ll take the adventure side as a free bonus where you can (especially against the rats deck). I’d happily play this without the black though.

Spellscorn Coven

Rating: 5/10

Both sides of this are pretty expensive but are still desirable effects. The creature side is the most interesting one as a simple 2-for-1 trade attached to a decently-sized flier. You don’t need the blue for it, but it certainly helps a bit.

Syr Armont, the Redeemer

Rating: 7/10

Syr Armont represents a lot of power and toughness on the board. It should be about a 6/6 right off the bat, but you’ll probably have at least a role or two out to increase those numbers. There will even be turns where you’ve gone really wide before playing this and it almost feels like a mini-Overrun, swinging the game back in your favor.

Talion, the Kindly Lord

Rating: 8/10

Talion presents your opponent with some really awkward choices. As we learn the format more and know what we want this to trigger off of, we can pick better numbers for it. For now, I’d suggest picking three as I’m guessing it’s the most likely number to come up. Even if it doesn’t do much, a 3/4 flier for 4 mana is a great deal to fall back on, but I’m assuming you’ll get at least a card or two out of it given the scope of the ability.

Tempest Hart

Rating: 7/10

Not only is this already a good size, but it should be trivially easy to grow it turn after turn. The adventure side isn’t particularly useful, but it is a reason to stockpile excess lands so that you can discard them later.

The Apprentice’s Folly

Rating: 5/10

I don’t know what to make of this, to be honest. It’s a really aggressive card but in a color combination that prefers to be controlling in this format. Either that or you can use it to copy some good ETB triggers. Either way, the card requires quite a bit of setup to be good, but it seems there should be enough reward if you can put the work in.

The Goose Mother

Rating: 9/10

mana for an X/X flier is obscenely good, regardless of what else it does. On top of that, you get a nice pile of food and some more cards You can’t ask for much more than that from a powerful bomb rare.

Threadbind Clique

Rating: 7/10

Destroying a tapped creature as an instant lets this card destroy attacking creatures as well as ones that have already been tapped. If that wasn’t good enough already, you get a Phantom Monster on top of that. You can get so much value out of this card that either side individually would be worth playing in your deck, and you should actively look to splash the other side if you can.

Totentanz, Swarm Piper

Rating: 7/10

Totentanz allowing all of your creatures to turn into rats when they die is pretty good, but the real power lies in its activated ability. The threat of activating this lets you attack freely with your rats and your opponent can’t block for fear of losing their blockers. Then, you can just spend your mana casting a spell post-combat. That alone is enough to turn the tide of a game.

Troyan, Gutsy Explorer

Rating: 6/10

Three-drop mana dorks are not that powerful, but this one does accelerate you into a 6-drop on turn 4 by itself, so that’s definitely good enough. You can always fall back on the looting ability to dig you into some good spells as you progress to the late game.

Twining Twins

Rating: 9/10

A 4-mana Serra Sphinx is one thing, but this even has ward and a great adventure spell. Yet another strong card that has more and more upsides above what I actually want. You just can’t go wrong with it.

Will, Scion of Peace

Rating: 6/10

Will isn’t quite as strong as his twin sister, since gaining life is quite a bit harder to do. It’ll often cost you mana to gain life, such as by sacrificing a food token, so you won’t even end up with much of a cost reduction (though you can do so if you cast a couple of spells in a turn). Being a 2/4 vigilance is often going to be what sells it though, since that’s a decent set of stats for a 3-drop and it will be difficult for your opponent to get past.

Woodland Acolyte

Rating: 7/10

You can definitely just play this creature as a 3-drop that replaces itself. But you can get so much value from combining it with the adventure side, turning it into an Eternal Witness for 4 total mana. I’d be happy with either option, though I would actively try to splash the green if my pool allowed me to.

Yenna, Redtooth Regent

Rating: 8/10

Getting to repeatedly copy your good enchantments has to be a valuable ability in most decks. Especially if they have ETB triggers. Being a 4/4 for 4 mana is also pretty great. I like this card in general, and if you find it early enough in the draft, you can specifically draft around it, picking up synergistic enchantments as you go.

Artifacts/Colorless

Agatha’s Soul Cauldron

Rating: 7/10

This card has a lot of text, but there’s one main thing that we’re interested in here and that’s the last ability. For no mana, we can exile a creature card in a graveyard and get a +1/+1 counter on one of our creatures. The fact that it requires no additional mana beyond the cost of the card makes it pretty powerful. The extra abilities are likely to kick in at some point, making this a great package that any deck should be happy to play.

Candy Trail

Rating: 4/10

We’ve seen a bunch of food cards like this in previous sets that looked good but have ended up being not worth it. This is probably the best one we’ve ever seen, giving you three life, a card, and a scry 2 for just 3 mana total. I’m assuming that’s good enough and I would definitely be happy playing this in a food deck.

Collector’s Vault

Rating: 1/10

I doubt you have enough time in a game to bother doing this. Without any particular synergies for a card like this, I don’t think it’s worth using.

Eriette’s Tempting Apple

Rating: 5/10

Having a second Threaten effect in the set is kind of interesting. Doubling up as an additional food that can even dome the opponent for some damage is a good bonus, but unless you want the first ability, this isn’t worth playing.

Gingerbrute

Rating: 4/10

Gingerbrute is probably the best flavor design ever made and I’m glad it’s been reprinted in this set. It’s not all that good in Limited, but it is an aggressive one-drop that can be unblockable, and that counts for something. If this set is more aggressive than its predecessor, then it’ll probably perform better.

Hylda’s Crown of Winter

Rating: 10/10

Being colorless, this is likely the strongest first pick in the entire set. It’s essentially a better Icy Manipulator, which was already an incredible card for Limited. This is basically a removal spell that you can always switch targets to the best creature your opponent plays. I don’t think you’re that likely to cash it in for extra cards, but I guess it’s a nice option to have. You’re just not likely to draw a card better than this.

Prophetic Prism

Rating: 5/10

Prophetic Prism has been exceptional nearly every time we’ve seen it. It fixes colors, cantrips, and, best of all, it can be sacrificed to bargain costs. It’s bound to work in the context of this set and any deck can play it.

Scarecrow Guide

Rating: 3/10

These cards are usually bad because they have terrible stats. A 2/1 for 2 is a good start though, so it shouldn’t be too bad in whichever deck you play it in. Fixing colors is the main reason you’d play this though, otherwise, you shouldn’t need a weak 2-drop like this.

Soul-Guide Lantern

Rating: 3/10

There’s not really any reason to need graveyard hate in this set, but you can at least play it and cycle it. There just isn’t much reason to do so.

Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender

Rating: 6/10

With only one planeswalker in the set, we can clearly ignore the first ability. The second is very good though, triggering off of any food you sacrifice. I would actively play this in a food deck and it even gives you a reason to want Soul-Guide Lantern in your deck.

The Irencrag

Rating: 7/10

I believe it’s been over 10 years since we last saw a 2-drop mana rock in Standard, so that’s pretty exciting. The card itself seems very powerful in Limited too, as turning into a very useful equipment in the late game makes up for the inherent downside that comes with every signet in Limited.

Three Bowls of Porridge

Rating: 5/10

This looks like a great package of abilities. You need to find a spot on your curve to deploy it efficiently, but that’s the only major downside I can see. The white/blue deck should be especially happy to see this and get an extra tap ability from it.

Lands

Crystal Grotto

Rating: 3/10

This isn’t a particularly good way to fix your mana since it makes your spells cost an extra mana to use. I’d steer clear of this unless you have literally no other options.

Edgewall Inn

Rating: 6/10

Uncharted Haven was basically just an Evolving Wilds and every deck would play it. This is the same, with a very relevant upside. I’d take it for any deck, but it clearly works best in a deck with multiple adventures to buy back.

Evolving Wilds

Rating: 5/10

Evolving Wilds is a fantastic land. Any deck can use it and it helps fix splash colors. You shouldn’t take it over good playables for your deck, but it’s good enough to take over any replaceable spells.

The Creature Lands (Restless Bivouac, Restless Cottage, Restless Fortress, Restless Spire, Restless Vinestalk)

Rating: 7/10

This new cycle of creature lands is incredible and much better than the cycle from Battle for Zendikar. Each card in the cycle has its own merits, but I’ve grouped them together because as dual lands, I’d be saying the same thing about each of them.

If you are already in their respective color combinations, they add a ton of value to your deck by upgrading one of your land slots to a good creature. In this case, they’re worth taking over near anything other than bombs or good removal. I’d say they’re even good enough to take if you’re in one of their colors and can feasibly splash the other.

The Enchanted Tales

Wilds of Eldraine features a bonus sheet, akin to the Mystical Archive of Strixhaven or the Multiversal Legends from March of the Machine. The Enchanted Tales is a set of 63 enchantments from Magic’s history and since they’re available in draft boosters, they will affect the Limited format. Let’s take a look and see if there are any that we can make use of.

White

Blind Obedience

Rating: 5/10

Sitting in play and allowing you to extort your opponent regularly sounds like a good option, to be honest. It does also make it harder for your opponent to block against you, so that’s nice to have.

Dawn of Hope

Rating: 6/10

You’re unlikely to have a lot of time to sit back and make tokens, but it’s an extremely powerful ability to have. Until then, it should be enough to get to draw cards whenever you gain life, which food tokens enable quite nicely. Later on, you will make tokens and it will feel good.

Grasp of Fate

Rating: 7/10

The main set weirdly doesn’t have an Oblivion Ring variant, so we have it here on the bonus sheet instead. It’s just incredibly solid removal and you should pick it highly.

Greater Auramancy

Rating: 0/10

Granting shroud to other enchantments is not worth it in Limited, especially when spending a whole card to do so.

Griffin Aerie

Rating: 5/10

This was a really difficult card to enable when we saw it last, and it fell flat as a result. It probably still is, but this time we have food tokens to trigger it in one shot. I have higher hopes for it this time and I’m hoping that it works out.

Intangible Virtue

Rating: 4/10

Weirdly enough, the two most common kinds of tokens we’ve seen — the 1/1 rats that can’t block and the 2/2 vigilance knights — don’t care about gaining vigilance. But +1/+1 to all tokens for 2 mana is a good deal, assuming you’ve got enough tokens to warrant it.

Karmic Justice

Rating: 0/10

So, it’s a card that punishes your opponent for destroying your noncreatures? No thanks. Even in an enchantment-based set, that’s not going to happen often enough for this to do anything.

Knightly Valor

Rating: 5/10

This is an aura that has performed very well when we’ve seen it in the past. Five is a lot for an aura that comes with many of the same downsides that auras have, but even if you get 2-for-1ed, it leaves behind a 2/2 vigilance token to fall back on. It turns out that’s enough of a failsafe and giving +2/+2 and vigilance is really good for pushing through damage.

Land Tax

Rating: 8/10

A 1-mana enchantment that draws you three cards each turn is clearly obscene. You can realistically only do this if you’re on the draw, but even on the play, drawing it later on it will be okay to run out. Maybe skip a land drop to enable it and then thin all of your lands out of your deck in a few turns.

Leyline of Sanctity

Rating: 0/10

There’s a leyline here in each color and they’re all useless. We have to consider them as 4-mana enchantments since it’s very unlikely we see one in our opening hand (17.5% to be precise). None of them are suited for Limited, so be aware of that.

Phyrexian Unlife

Rating: 3/10

When played in the right situation, this can gain you a ton of life for just 3 mana, and that might be a good option in some matchups. Though like Illusions of Grandeur, you basically lose that life gain if this gets removed. Still, against Grixis-based decks that can’t remove it, it might be okay.

Rest in Peace

Rating: 0/10

This just isn’t a desirable effect in a Limited format that doesn’t have any graveyard-based decks. Pass.

Smothering Tithe

Rating: 0/10

Yeah, it may be a powerhouse in Commander, but it’s awful in Limited. It costs 4 mana, doesn’t affect the board, and against a single opponent drawing only one card per turn, the reward just isn’t there. When this was first printed, it was commonly a last pick in Ravnica Allegiance drafts and only began to get picked higher when its price started to climb.

Blue

As Foretold

Rating: 0/10

I don’t think this is in any way worth it. You play this on turn 3, then you need to wait several turns before you get enough of a mana discount to make it worth playing in the first place. I’m not willing to wait that long. It’s also horrendous to draw later on.

Compulsion

Rating: 1/10

Compulsion was originally designed as a madness enabler, but it wasn’t even a particularly good one. In a set with absolutely no discard synergy, I don’t see it happening. Modern formats are bound to be too aggressive to allow you to spend your time and mana doing this.

Copy Enchantment

Rating: 7/10

You need to have some good enchantments that you’d love to copy in order to play this, but assuming you do, this becomes an incredibly valuable card. You can also copy your opponent’s enchantments if you don’t find any of your own, so it’s hard to imagine this ever being a dead card to draw.

Curiosity

Rating: 5/10

Putting this onto a creature that is definitely getting through this turn, such as a flier, lets this replace itself immediately. At that point, it’s pretty much done its job. You can continue to draw cards, or, if that’s not possible, you can cash it in to a bargain effect or something similar.

Forced Fruition

Rating: 7/10

Once you play this, your opponent is now limited to casting only three more spells, tops. The fourth spell will lose them the game, as they’ve drawn 28 extra cards. I’d be very interested in ramping into this, since the earlier you can play it, the more devastating it will be. Annoyingly, this is extremely vulnerable to enchantment hate, so I’d side it out against white or green decks, but it should be great elsewhere.

Fraying Sanity

Rating: 0/10

There is shockingly little that mills in this set, so I don’t think we can play Fraying Sanity. Sure, it triggers off of creatures dying or cards being discarded, but it’s far too slow at doing that.

Hatching Plans

Rating: 6/10

This is a really intriguing card. It’s the only card on the list that I’d never heard of. It was a random rare from Guildpact that did nothing, was never reprinted, and frankly was a bad design that made no sense to print in the first place. Yet, sacrificing it to bargain sounds incredible. For that reason alone, I think this card looks very good in the format.

Intruder Alarm

Rating: 0/10

You can’t allow your opponent to play a creature post-combat and untap all of their attackers, even if this allows you to do the same.

Kindred Discovery

Rating: 8/10

The faerie deck should be very excited to play this one. In fact, I’d be a little worried of this drawing too many cards and decking out, but you can always sacrifice it to bargain if you run too low. At that point, you’ve drawn so many cards that you shouldn’t have much trouble winning.

Leyline of Anticipation

Rating: 0/10

Another useless leyline. Having flash is nice, but not something I’d care too much about having.

Omniscience

Rating: 0/10

Costing 10 mana should probably tell you all you need to know about this.

Rhystic Study

Rating: 4/10

I’m torn on this one. I’ve had people ask me if I think this is any good, given that many of the Commander cards on this bonus sheet are bad. I think Rhystic Study is ok. It has a lot of value if you can play it early when your opponent will be forced to let you draw some cards in the early turns. Rhystic Study is powerful in Commander because you have multiple opponents who regularly cast several spells in a turn, but neither of those factors are present here. After a certain point, your opponent can just pay the one mana and not worry about it. But early on, or against an opponent who’s already constrained on mana, this is probably pretty good.

Spreading Seas

Rating: 5/10

This has a lot of potential to screw up your opponent’s mana when you play it early, though it is somewhat unlikely. But regardless, it costs 2 mana, draws a card, and can then be sacrificed to bargain. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Black

Bitterblossom

Rating: 7/10

In the faeries deck, I would assume that Bitterblossom has to be awesome. It’s not exactly broken without any cards that care about the number of faeries you control, but creating a free token every turn is incredibly powerful and you can even sacrifice this to bargain if the life loss starts getting dangerous.

Dark Tutelage

Rating: 3/10

You can sacrifice it once the life loss gets too dangerous, but I don’t think you can afford to lose large chunks of life just to draw cards. If this was a creature, like Dark Confidant, then it would be worth using, but being an enchantment is too much of a drawback.

Grave Pact

Rating: 9/10

Grave Pact is difficult to cast, but worth it. Trading off creatures becomes so much easier and so much more rewarding. Can your opponent even block your creatures anymore? Your rat tokens will trade for creatures now, of any size. Given how good black is at sacrificing its creatures, this card should do plenty of work whenever you play it.

Leyline of the Void

Rating: 0/10

Not only is this not a particularly desirable effect in Limited, but four mana is a hell of a lot to pay. Just don’t bother.

Necropotence

Rating: 4/10

Necropotence is a classic card and the centerpiece of one of Magic’s earliest broken combo decks. While much of its power doesn’t quite translate to a game of Limited, this set comes with a built-in way to take advantage of it. Given enough time, you can draw a bunch of cards and then sacrifice Necropotence to bargain or some other effect to remove the downside.

Oppression

Rating: 1/10

This sounds like a great way of taxing the opponent, except it’s also taxing you. If your deck is very good at getting its cards down early, then this might be ok, but it’s just bad most of the time.

Oversold Cemetery

Rating: 6/10

It only kicks in in the late game, but getting a free creature back every turn for very little investment is a pretty decent deal. If I knew I had this coming, I’d trade off pretty aggressively to the point where this provides late game inevitability and I could easily win.

Polluted Bonds

Rating: 0/10

If you’re somehow able to get this out before your opponent played most of their lands, then I could see it being great. Sadly, at 5 mana, that just isn’t going to happen. It’s incredibly possible that you play this and your opponent doesn’t even need to play another land. You can’t afford for that to happen, so just leave this in the sideboard and move on.

Sanguine Bond

Rating: 6/10

Five mana is a lot to pay for an enchantment that doesn’t affect the board, but food decks could really use a card that drains the opponent whenever you sacrifice them. In that deck specifically, this actually looks like a decent win condition, but it’s useless anywhere else.

Stab Wound

Rating: 7/10

Stab Wound is a phenomenal removal spell. You have the option of straight up killing something small or, better yet, incapacitating something a little bigger and sitting back while your opponent’s life drains away each turn. It’s especially good on a 2/3.

Vampiric Rites

Rating: 5/10

This is cheap enough and gives you great utility to sacrifice creatures when you want it to. The best use would be to chump block with something and then turn it into a card, but you can also turn random rat tokens into cards to try to find something that presses your advantage further.

Waste Not

Rating: 0/10

There’s very little discard here and even then, you’ll run into the problem of this sitting in play and your opponent having an empty hand anyway. It’s just not good enough unless you specifically build around it.

Red

Aggravated Assault

Rating: 2/10

This feels like it’s far too much mana to pay for an extra combat phase. However, that is an incredibly powerful effect to get, so perhaps this is just the right amount to be paying. I’m leaning towards not wanting it, but I could certainly see situations where I’m proven wrong on that.

Blood Moon

Rating: 0/10

The majority of the lands you play against will be basics, making this basically unplayable.

Dragon Mantle

Rating: 5/10

At the end of the day, you’ve only paid 1 mana and drawn a card, so you don’t even need much else for this card to be worth it. Every time we’ve seen Dragon Mantle before, it’s been a fantastic common, and I see no reason it can’t be just as good here.

Fiery Emancipation

Rating: 2/10

Tripling damage is an incredibly powerful ability, but on a 6-mana enchantment that does nothing else it just isn’t worth it. There are definitely some scenarios for it, but you need the right deck to support it.

Goblin Bombardment

Rating: 7/10

This is one of the best sac outlets you could possibly hope for. It’s free to use and has a great payoff for doing so, particularly in the rats deck. Each rat representing an extra point of damage to anything is a surefire way of closing out a game or wreaking havoc on your opponent’s board.

Impact Tremors

Rating: 1/10

This is fine to play early, but it gets worse and worse as the game progresses until it’s practically useless if you draw it in the late game. That sounds like too much of a liability to me.

Leyline of Lightning

Rating: 1/10

This is the only leyline that looks promising, but the effect is still so minor that it’s not worth paying any mana for.

Mana Flare

Rating: 0/10

Mana Flare is a classic combo card, but not something you can feasibly play in a fair deck, which every deck in this format will be.

Raid Bombardment

Rating: 7/10

It might not affect the board in any way, but in the right deck, this represents a lot of extra damage. If I’m in the black/red rats deck, this looks like something I actively want and will win a lot of games.

Repercussion

Rating: 1/10

The fact that this is double-sided really holds it back. It’s not that there are no decks that can use it, but most of the time it will punish you too much.

Shared Animosity

Rating: 5/10

This is another card I could see working out as a decent build-around for the rats deck. Even just attacking with three rats will give all of them +2/+0 and the more tokens you build up, the more powerful this effect becomes. The rats themselves are fairly useless and they require a card like this to help them get into combat more often.

Sneak Attack

Rating: 0/10

Sneak Attack is a classic staple in Legacy, where you can cheat huge creatures like Griselbrand into play. With hardly any of those in the set, it’s never worth it.

Green

Defense of the Heart

Rating: 8/10

This sounds like an incredible tax card. If you play it when your opponent has three creatures out, then they’ll be desperate to lose some before your next turn. If you play it when they have fewer than three, then they can never play out more creatures. In both scenarios, doing so will trigger this and put, for example, a pair of 6-drops onto the board, something that your opponent simply can’t afford to allow.

Doubling Season

Rating: 0/10

Yeah, I know that for Commander players, Doubling Season is a huge reprint for the set. You might even be shocked to see me tell you it’s unplayable in Limited. But sadly, it’s true. Games of Limited are about creatures and playing to the board. A 5-mana enchantment that makes future cards you play better doesn’t do either of those things. Even if the next spell you play makes a token, getting an extra one isn’t enough to justify the cost of this card. This card benefits from having a great deck built around it and having time to deploy those awesome cards, which you just can’t do in Limited.

Garruk’s Uprising

Rating: 6/10

When we last saw Garruk's Uprising, it really shocked me. We’d seen similar cards before and they sucked. However, this version just ticked all of the right notes. From drawing several cards to putting an unrestricted trample on every creature, it really justified its cost and I expect it to do so again.

Ground Seal

Rating: 3/10

The anti-graveyard ability here is next to useless in the set. But, if you’re in the market for a cheap enchantment that replaces itself, then you could certainly do worse. There are definitely decks out there that could use it.

Hardened Scales

Rating: 0/10

Given how cheap this is, it definitely could have found a home in a set that was more suited for it. However, this set’s design has replaced a lot of effects that would usually have given +1/+1 counters with effects that give roles instead.

Leyline of Abundance

Rating: 0/10

With only a couple of creatures in the set that even tap for mana, this is nowhere near playable.

Nature’s Will

Rating: 0/10

I can see this having some uses, but it’s simply not good enough for Limited. If you play it on a turn with a guaranteed combat, you can get reimbursed for it and it’s basically free. But on future turns, all it does is allow you to double spell. At no point do you actually get a card’s worth of value for having played it.

Parallel Lives

Rating: 1/10

There aren’t a lot of tokens in this set, so just like Doubling Season, this isn’t worth a whole card. This is cheaper though and doubling up food tokens might be something you can do in a heavily synergistic deck, but it’s often just not worth the investment.

Primal Vigor

Rating: 0/10

Once again, just like Doubling Season, it isn’t worth it to spend 5 mana on an enchantment that doesn’t affect the board until you do something else very specific.

Prismatic Omen

Rating: 0/10

While fixing all of your colors for the rest of the game might seem desirable, spending a whole card to do so is just not something you want to do. If it ramped you like Chromatic Lantern does, then it would be a different story.

Season of Growth

Rating: 4/10

This is a potential build-around card for green/white, depending on how many spells and auras you have that target. Unfortunately, a lot of cards that give roles do so as triggered abilities and hence don’t trigger this, but a fair few of them still target as spells and if you have enough of them then this should become a pretty decent card.

Unnatural Growth

Rating: 5/10

This is a very powerful enchantment, but one with a prohibitively restrictive mana cost. Quad green is by no means trivial and that will price a lot of players out of being able to use this. However, if you can support it, perhaps because you have Night of Sweets' Revenge, then the card is very powerful and tends to let you dominate combat.

Utopia Sprawl

Rating: 8/10

If it’s good enough for vintage cube, it’s more than good enough in this set. Utopia Sprawl is one of Magic’s few ways to ramp on turn one, while also being an enchantment for synergy with the set’s mechanics and also fixing your colors. I don’t think it’s an understatement to suggest that this is likely the most impactful card on this bonus sheet.

And Done…

Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

I hope you’ve enjoyed my take on this set. I’m excited to give it a try, so I hope it turns out to be a good experience.

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Until next time, take care of yourselves!